1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for promoting users' health and more particularly to an apparatus for supporting a user in an inverted position supported on their shoulders.
2. Prior Art
It has been found beneficial for health for a person to be in an inverted position for a limited period of time. Such practice tends to correct downward displacement of their internal organs and provides increased blood flow to their brain. Such practice, however, is not easy for many people, especially for persons who are elderly or less physically adept. Remaining in an inverted attitude, as by a person standing on their hands, without assistance is difficult for any person, and includes a risk to the person of their falling, resulting in injury.
Accordingly, various apparatus have been developed to support a user in an inverted position. Some such devices have involved inversion boots that are worn by a person to allow them to hang by their feet from a bar, or have involved an inversion platform or bed to which the legs of a person are maintained, with the platform or bed rotated so as to turn the person to an inverted position. These types of apparatus, particularly the inversion bed or platform, are generally large units. Also, in using such inversion devices the persons head will be swung in a circular arc with a great radius, potentially causing the user to feel sick, similar to being airsick, seasick, or carsick.
Distinct from the above described inversion devices, a U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,845 discloses an apparatus that provides for supporting a person in an inverted position with their knees bent. Such positioning diminishes the positive effect on the persons systems and blood flow to the person's brain that is achieved when their body is straight, and also causes the person to feel somewhat cramped. With the device of the '845 patent, the user is maintained in an inverted position with their thighs supported by a thigh support and the soles of their feet braced against a foot support bar, providing a somewhat unstable support. Whereas, the person using the device of the invention is supported at their shoulders. Structurally, of course, the device of the invention is unlike an inversion device or the support apparatus of the '845 patent.